Remembering Family Guy's Bowie/Jagger cutaway gig

Dancing in the street!

Regardless of the quality of Family Guy over the years, there have been times during the show's still-going 13-season run that it was fucking hilarious. And maybe it's the Gen-Y in me but upon hearing the tragic news of David Bowie's passing today following a long battle with cancer at the age of 69, this particular cutaway gag was the first thing that came into my head. Episode 7 of Season 9, called Foreign Affairs, Lois and Joe's wife Bonnie go to France so the latter can get frisky away from her handicapped husband, while the Peter decides to home school the kids with varying degrees of success.

Some of his history teachings look back at the 80s, in particular, 1985, and "the gayest music video of all time". In their infinite wisdom, the writers then happily let the clip for David Bowie and Mick Jagger's Dancing In The Street run for its entirety, before Peter declares, "That happened, and we all let it happen."

And thank god we did, because it's an absolute thing of beauty, and a testament to David Bowie's beautiful weirdness, and awesomeness (it was recorded to raise money for Live Aid famine relief). The rough mix of the track was recorded in all of four hours, and once it was Jagger and Bowie went straight out into the London Docklands to shoot the video clip with director David Mallet. And 13 hours later, that was also done.

Vale David Bowie, a creative force the likes of which we'll never see again.